


The Hunger That Never Took

by melimarron



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Character Undeath, Gen, I use that tag a lot, I'm Sorry, Justice for Barbara "Barb" Holland, Major character death - Freeform, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, because i will RUIN THEM, but gone HORRIBLY wrong, hooo boy this one's rough, those are for two different people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:48:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23725585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melimarron/pseuds/melimarron
Summary: At Steve Harrington's pool in 1983, Barbara Holland wrapped her cut more thoroughly, and in doing so, changed the story around her. The Demogorgon never found her, and she drove home, safe and sound.The consequences of surviving that night are fast to spiral out of control.
Relationships: Barbara "Barb" Holland & Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byers & Joyce Byers, Joyce Byers & Jim "Chief" Hopper, Joyce Byers & Will Byers, Nancy Wheeler & Jonathan Byers, Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler, Will Byers & Eleven | Jane & Dustin Henderson & Maxine Mayfield & Lucas Sinclair & Mike Wheeler
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	The Hunger That Never Took

Everyone knows that Barbara Holland is dead.

Everyone knows that she died, and in doing so set Nancy Wheeler and Steve Harrington and Jonathan Byers on the path to monster hunting.

Everyone knows that she died, and that was the sum total of her usefulness to the world. _Barbara Holland_ is a name in the orbituaries and then she is forgotten by everyone except her friends and her parents, her sole achievement being to wake Nancy Wheeler to the secret horrors of the world lurking underneath the surface.

* * *

But let’s have a story where that didn’t happen.

Let’s have a story where Barb was fast enough, or wary enough, or even loud enough to get someone else’s attention and be rescued before she tumbled into the pool and the Upside Down and her sad, sad fate.

What happens next?

* * *

Disgusted at Nancy, Barbara Holland sits outside, feet in the swimming pool, where in another world, she would have been dragged in, to her death.

Her thumb is still hurt, but let’s say that this time, it was bandaged more thoroughly and no blood was dripping out.

Let’s say that this time, she was never taken by an otherworldly monster, wasn’t unlucky and lonely and forgotten by everyone until it was too late. Let’s say that she survived the night, listening to the crickets and the wind and the barely-discernible moans coming from the house. Let’s say she survived, with no idea of how wonderful of an achievement that was.

She does what Nancy told her to do, and goes home, fed up with her friend’s unwise decisions and with no idea of the world that had missed its chance to feed upon her.

She goes to school the next day, and so do Nancy and Steve. None of them realize how close they had come to death the previous night.

The week unfurls, but without Barb’s death, Nancy and Jonathan never meet up to solve the mystery of it. Steve smashes Jonathan’s camera and tears up the photos, and Nancy sees the photo he took of Barb and takes it to her friend, full of righteous anger.

They never realize how, in another world, that photograph would have been a key part of solving the deadly mystery surrounding Hawkins.

Without the Nancy and Jonathan team-up, Steve never believes he is being cheated on, never tries to fight Jonathan and hurt Nancy. Nancy and Jonathan do not enter the Upside Down together. Nancy is at home, peacefully unaware that her brother is searching for an otherworldly monster, while Jonathan battles the terrors of another dimension alone.

There are consequences to that.

There are consequences to everything.

If that hunger of another world had never fed upon Barbara Holland, things spiral out of control quickly- far too quickly for anyone to stop them.

Without Nancy’s awareness of the monsters of Hawkins, it becomes that much harder to set up the pool of water for Eleven to use to find Will, but without Barb’s death, Eleven never finds her corpse.

Jonathan returns home to lure the Demogorgon away alone.

Without Nancy, and without the need to apologize to draw Steve into the trio of older monster fighters, Jonathan Byers dies quickly and alone, and becomes as forgotten as Barbara Holland should have been.

When Joyce Byers, upon her joyful and triumphant return to her home dimension with her younger (only) son in her arms, hears of this, she collapses inside and out.

This time, she is the one to plan the funeral. Lonnie comes, sneering and daring her with his presence to say anything. “He was a coward,” is all he says at Jonathan’s funeral, and spits on the grave. Then he asks Joyce if she’s _sure_ they’d buried their son for real this time, because “I’m not coming back for a _third_ funeral for our _two_ sons.”

Joyce kicks him out again, this time more violently, and retreats into herself in grief. Will, too afraid of the _things_ he’s coughing up and the terrifying visions he’s starting to have, barely notices. The constant of their family is missing. The two of them notice it constantly.

Eventually, Joyce begins to live again, spurred on by Bob Newby’s cheerful demeanor and clear like of Will. She makes Will his Ghostbusters costume in time for Halloween and smiles at her son and boyfriend and only collapses into tears when nobody is around and she’s reminded of Jonathan’s smile or his photography or the fact that she didn’t really know him or what he was interested in until Will vanished.

(He’d wanted to go to NYU. He was a photographer. He was her son and he was perfect and she loved him.)

Without Jonathan, Joyce becomes even more protective of Will, for good reason. She goes with her son and his friends when they go trick-or-treating, and witnesses his having a vision. She brings him to Doctor Owens the next morning, no arguments.

Without Jonathan, Nancy gets drunk at the Halloween party, but nothing comes of it, because as far as she is aware, Barb is alive and there is nothing wrong with the world because this is how it has always been. Steve drives her home, laughing the whole way.

Without Jonathan, Bob assumes that the monster Will sees is the result of the trauma of having to survive in the woods alone for a week, only to be rescued and immediately told that his brother had died in a wild bear attack. He does not tell Will to face his fears, instead offering a shoulder to cry on and an understanding ear.

As a result of this, Will does not try to tell the Mind Flayer to go away, does not stand stock still in the middle of a field, does not get possessed because of a well-meaning adult. But there’s only so long he can evade the Mind Flayer, with his episodes getting more and more frequent, and he is taken while he sleeps later that week.

Will still draws the map of Hawkins, but without her knowledge of the Upside Down and without the death of her best friend, Nancy never investigates Barb’s death and never goes to Murray Bauman with the confession of Sam Owens. The dark secrets of Hawkins Labs are never exposed without them, and so the scientists are free to continue their work.

Without Jonathan, Mike still realizes that Will is a spy, but without a driver in the know, Max, Dustin, and Lucas do not make it to the lab in time to save Mike, Joyce, Hopper, and Will after Bob dies to give them enough time to try to survive. The monsters have free reign of Hawkins, until a grief-stricken Eleven destroys them and the Gate when she learns of Mike’s death.

Will, Max, Dustin, Lucas, and Eleven are the sole survivors of everyone who knows about the Upside Down. Will is taken in by Dustin’s mother, grief-stricken and horrified and still possessed. Eleven disappears to live with Kali, taking a radio with her just in case.

Without the knowledge of Hawkins’ secrets, Russians do not build a secret lair underneath the mall. Robin and Steve work at Scoops Ahoy and fight bitterly the entire time, with Steve never having grown out of the desire to be popular all the time. 

Dustin does not visit Steve, too busy with his new girlfriend and trying to figure out how to help Will, who is terrifyingly far from human, these days. Besides, Dustin wasn’t friends with Steve _God-what-a-douche_ Harrington. 

Underneath the lab, the Gate waits to be opened.

There are three extra gravestones in the Hawkins graveyard.

Far away now, on a quest for revenge, Jane Ives thinks that something has gone horribly wrong, but she doesn’t know what.

And in the middle of it all, Barbara Holland continues to live a normal life, unaware of the sacrifices that have been made to keep her alive.


End file.
